Staff

Aminisha Ferdinand, Arts Integration Instructional Coach
Theresa Fowler, Business Manager
Elise Gallinot, Program Director
Sean Glazebrook, Arts Coach
Linda Irwin, Development Director
Arielle Jordan, Office Coordinator
Heather Muntzer, Arts Coach
Echo Olander, Executive Director

Aminisha Ferdinand, Arts Integration Instructional Coach, is the key staff in the Model Schools and Teacher | Leader Projects. She joined the KID smART team as an Arts Coach in 2009, facilitating arts integration workshops for classroom teachers, coaching KID smART teaching artists and serving as artist-in-residence at Langston Hughes Academy. She performed in theater venues across the country for ten years before entering the field of arts education. Her teaching experience includes work in Atlanta, the Very Special Arts program in Jefferson Parish and the Upward Bound program at Tulane University. Aminisha also studied at the Center for the Theatre of the Oppressed in Rio de Janeiro and worked with Invisible Children in Gulu, Uganda. Aminisha received her BFA in Theater Performance from the University of Miami. She has an MA in Educational Theatre from NYU.

Theresa Fowler, Business Manager, has over twenty years of business/office management experience. She works part time with KID smART in bookkeeping and working with the Board Treasurer and the Executive Director to maintain the agency’s financial accounting systems. Theresa also works part time as the bookkeeper for HandsOn New Orleans.

Elise Gallinot, Program Director since 2008, coordinated development of The KID smART Model, a comprehensive multi-faceted arts integration program designed around direct instruction in classrooms and professional development for classroom teachers and teaching artists. She has researched and trained in best practices through national models including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, ArtsConnection, New York and Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she was a fellow for two years. Ms. Gallinot received her certification training in Montessori education and taught for four years before focusing on arts administration. She received her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Georgia in Athens and her Masters Degree in Arts Administration from the University of New Orleans.

Sean Glazebrook, an Arts Coach for KID smART, facilitates arts integration workshops for classroom teachers, including the AXIS small learning group, The Art of Science, coaches and supports KID smART teaching artists and serves as artist-in-residence (theatre arts) at McDonough City Park Academy. He coordinated the KID smART-directed ICI 2012 Arts Integration Summer Institute including presenting a specially created artist training track. Sean is a founding member and Education Director for The NOLA Project, a New Orleans-based theatre company focused on producing original work and engaging new audiences. He holds a BFA in Theatre and History from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and certification in Shakespearean Performance from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He has completed the Kennedy Center’s Artists as Educators track.

Linda Irwin, Development Director since 2009, forges community partnerships in support of KID smART’s mission. She has an extensive background in not-for-profit management with a special emphasis on strategic planning and mission-driven organizational development and fundraising. She was Executive Director of Youth Alternatives, Inc. in New Orleans for ten years and of the Tulsa Center for Individuals with Physical Challenges in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for twelve years.

Arielle Jordan, Office Coordinator, provides administrative support to the Executive Director, Program Director, Arts Coaches and the Development Director. Arielle has worked previously as a project manager for Peter A. Mayer Advertising and Laitram LLC. She works part time with KID smART while pursuing her MFA in Advertising.

Heather Muntzer, Arts Coach, facilitates arts integration workshops for classroom teachers, including the AXIS small learning group, Making Artful Connections in Math, coaches and supports KID smART teaching artists and serves as artist-in-residence (visual arts) at Arthur Ashe and John Dibert elementary schools. She is a practicing visual artist with a background in traditional fine art, social practice work and community art. She shows her work in the St. Claude Arts District and paints murals throughout the area. Heather is the co-founder and Art Program Director for Big Class, a New Orleans-based organization that facilitates creative collaborations between youth and professional artists through programming and publishing. She holds a BFA from the California College of the Arts, with a minor in Art Education. Heather is working towards her M.Ed from Mills College and is certified in Secondary Teaching in the Arts. She has completed the Kennedy Center’s Artist as Educators track.

Echo Olander, Executive Director, directs the vision and the mission of KID smART and manages operations. As Founding Director, Echo led KID smART’s growth in scope and impact from its beginning in 1999 as an arts education program for twenty children in one school to its work with six thousand students in twenty-three schools this year. Echo consulted for ten years with the Mississippi Arts Commission on the professional development component of the Whole Schools Initiative, helping schools move towards arts integrated curriculum and instruction. She coordinated the review of Curriculum Guides for the Louisiana Department of Education and the Louisiana Division of the Arts. Previous affiliations include six years as program associate with the New York State Council on the Arts and the Arts Council of New Orleans. She has a BA in English from Newcomb College.